Kochi: The beatification of Sr. Rani Maria will be held in Indore on November 4.

Vatican has intimated the confirmed date of beatification to the Superior General Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC), Sr Rani’s order.

Sr Rani Maria, a missionary nun from Kerala, was stabbed to death 22 years ago in Indore in Madhya Pradesh by a contract killer employed by landlords who were infuriated with her work among the downtrodden.

With the beatification, the penultimate stage of the fourphased canonisation procedure, Sr Rani Maria will be elevated to the status of ‘Blessed’.

In March, the Vatican had cleared her beatification approving the report of the ‘Congregation for the Causes of Saints’ to promulgate the decree of Sr Rani’s martyrdom. The nun’s cause of Canonisation began in 2003, and she was declared a ‘Servant of God’ four years later.

“The confirmed date of beatification has been officially communicated to Sr Ann Joseph, Superior General of the Congregation, who is on a visit to Vatican, by Cardinal Angelo Aato, the Prefect for the Congregation of the Saints and deputy secretary Msgr Rober Sarno,” FCC general counsellor Sr Strarley said.

Landlords, who turned against Sr Rani Maria for her work among the poor and landless agricultural labourers in MP, had engaged Samandar Singh to murder the nun. Sr Rani Maria is a native of Pulluvazhi at Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district. Her family hit international headlines after pardoning and accepting her killer as a member of the family.

Source: New Indian Express